East & North Greenlandic

[deardron]

Does anyone have info on these languages/dialects and their distinction from West Greenlandic?
Links are welcome or you can post it here below.
Qujanaq!

P.S. It's really ridiculous that the articles on East Greenlandic in Wikipedia are in fact 100% copies of respective articles on West Greenlandic, both in English and Danish versions. Someone who wrote them must have forgotten to correct the "East Greenlandic" page!

[limoneneis]

Do you have "Qanoq 1"? It's a book with grammar exercises. There is a short list in the back with differences between Mid Greenlandic and North Greenlandic. It's not much, just a table about the future tense and a small dictionary. There's also a short paragraph about different dialects in Stig Bjørnums "Grønlandsk Grammatik". Basically in the North they seem to say -ssooq instead of -ssaaq and ng instead of g.

[deardron]

No, I don't have Qanoq. I do have Bjørnum though, but can't find this overview in that book. Can you please give the page number?

What you're saying about the difference between "Mid- and North" Greenlandic makes me believe you've confused it with North-West and Mid-West Greenlandic dialects: in North-West Greenlandic (from Upernavik down to Aasiaat) -g- is indeed often replaced with -ng-. But it all is still the same West-Greenlandic Kalaallisut language. Well, probably I should have called "North Greenlandic" for "Polar Eskimo" (Inuktun, Tule Eskimo) which is often done, in order to avoid confusions like that.

There's very few info on Inuktun on Wikipedia, the most prominent is that Kalaallisut -s- corresponds to Inuktun -h- or -χ'-:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuktun

[limoneneis]

Yes, I meant the West Greenlandic Kalaallisut dialects. The short paragraph I was talking about is on page 8. But you are right there is no information about East and Thule Greenlandic, they even say so at the end of the paragraph. Sorry that's all I got. It's seems to be real hard to find what you are looking for. I'll keep my eyes open though.

[limoneneis]

Ok, it's not much, but you could have a look at "Arctic Languages - An Awakening", if you haven't already done so. There is a section on page 304 by Robert Peterson where he talks about East and North Greenlandic dialects. I don't understand much though, because I don't have a background in linguistics, and so I don't know if this book is good or not. There is also a map on page 307 where they show different dialects and the sounds they use.

In Qanoq they also say that "Illoqqortoormiut" in West Greenlandic corresponds to "Ittoqqortoormiit" in East Greenlandic. I don't know if this helps, but anyway I wish you good luck with your search

[Tukkumminnguaq]

there is kinda 4 subdialects in Greenlandic but Upernavik is considered North Greenlandic dialect however Upernavik uses 's' (West Greenlandic also uses 's'), East Greenlandic sometimes 's' and 'ts' most and Inughuit / Thule dialects uses 'h'

Upernavik, South Greenlandic and East Greenlandic has vowel harmony than West Greenlandic (Kalaallisut)

Rest of the Greenlandic dialects has lots of metathesis from Proto-Inuit origin words like Bering Strait Inupiaq has it too.

Dialect	Greenlandic person	Greenlandic people	Greenlandic language (Like the Greenlandic)
Thule	kalaaleq	kalaadlit	kalaadlihut
West Greenlandic	kalaaleq	kalaallit	kalaallisut
South Greenlandic	kalaaleq	kalaallit	kalaallisit
East Greenlandic	kalaaleq	kalaattit	kalaattisit

Dialect	actually; really; however; but etc
North/West Greenlandic	-galuar-
South Greenlandic	-(n)galavar-, -galivar-
East Greenlandic	-ngalivar-

Dialect	you
Yupik	elpet
Proto-Inupik	ilvet
Bering Strait Inupiaq	ivlin
North Alaskan Inupiaq	ilvich
West Inuktun	ilvit, igvit
East Inuktitut	ivvit
Old Greenlandic	ivdlit (ivlit)
West Greenlandic	illit
East Greenlandic	ittit

Dialect	I have two kids/children
glossing	mal-ruq-k-nik qitunraq-qaq-tu-nga
meaning	follows-spot-dual-instr child-existence-be-1sg
Bering Strait Inupiaq	marlungnik qiturnaqaqtunga
West Inuktun	malrungnik qitunraqaqtunga
East Inuktitut	marruungnik qiturngaqaqpunga
Labrador Inuttut	magguunnik KitunngaKaKkunga
Thule	mardlungnik qitornaqaqpunga
West Greenlandic	marlunnik qitornaqarpunga
South Greenlandic	marlinnik qiternaqarpunga
East Greenlandic	martinnuk qilernararpua

etc (I will post in it more information or words later) and you can ask me question about them

[densou]

heard the sad news ?

UNESCO have just changed their status from 'vulnerable' (Western one will still retain this label) to 'definitely endangered'

Sources:
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01 ... ered-list/
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?pg=00136

[Struthiomimus]

heard the sad news ?

UNESCO have just changed their status from 'vulnerable' (Western one will still retain this label) to 'definitely endangered'

Sources:
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01 ... ered-list/
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?pg=00136

That is sad

In all, some 2,400 languages are considered endangered by UNESCO.

Wow! I had no idea so many languages were in danger. :/

[deardron]

I can explain you why there's so many endangered languages. It has often happened that when linguists went to, f.ex. Oceania or South America in order to describe the languages of indigenous people they considered the dialect of each village as a separate language, while in Europe they'd have been classified as dialects. Following this logic you can assert that there's, so to say, 30 languages in Germany and 100 languages in Norway. Yeah, dialects and languages have been, are and will be dying, it's a natural situation, so take it easy, c'est la vie.

[deardron]

Qujanarujussuaq (many thanks), Tukkumminnguaq for your overview

Looking forward to its continuation!

[Tukkumminnguaq]

u r welcome

I copy to paste from my Kalaaleq friend gave to me.

ENGLISH:
Call to all Eskimo / Inuit, please post in your original language any photos,
videos, books, or discussions that are cultural or historical.
We welcome and look forward to learning about your part of the world!
Thank you for sharing!

North Greenlandic (Thule dialect):
Inuit tamarmik hivanerfigikkit, inunnguutsivit oqauhii atordlugit assit,
ihigingnaagaghiat, atuakkat imaluunniit oqallighaarutit, kultoorimut
imaluunniit oqaluktuarihaunermut tunngassutilingnik.
Nuannaarutigaaqput tuharfiginighat tauvalu idlit nunarhuit
ilikkagaqarfigighadlugu
qujaareerdluta.

Kalaallisut (West Greenlandic, Nuuk dialect):
Inuit tamarmik sianerfigikkit, inunnguutsivit oqaasii atorlugit assit,
isiginnaagassiat, atuakkat imaluunniit oqallissaarutit, kultoorimut
imaluunniit oqaluttuarisaanermut tunngassutilinnik.
Nuannaarutigaarput tusarfiginissat taavalu illit nunarsuit
ilikkagaqarfigissallugu.
qujaareerluta.

East Greenlandic:
Iiviid damarmi tsianerpiiniakkid, iinnguuserpi oraasia alerdungid atsid,
isiinnaangatsiad, aluakkad uppaliinniid oralidduatsad, iiviid ileqquanni
uppaliinniid pilarngaarniguulunid tunngalini.
Kaimiddeernguliivarpud tutsiippiinitsad daaddi iddid nunarsuad
ilikkangarapiitsaddungu.
qujalarngaardila

[johnH]

Now onto actually having looked at the map it seams fine 2 of the dialect's seam to be endangered if it’s by the neighbouring dialect the language seams to be doing fine. if I’m not msitakent aht just means the language is still preserved though less diverse, it’s possible that some dialects are constantly in danger of disappearing anyway.
the status is more concerning about languages.
but still endangered is . but then again we need to sing in joy that we are learning the language. Anyway… the dialects do seam quite different to each other.
I want to study linguistics soon.

[Saim]

I can explain you why there's so many endangered languages. It has often happened that when linguists went to, f.ex. Oceania or South America in order to describe the languages of indigenous people they considered the dialect of each village as a separate language, while in Europe they'd have been classified as dialects. Following this logic you can assert that there's, so to say, 30 languages in Germany and 100 languages in Norway. Yeah, dialects and languages have been, are and will be dying, it's a natural situation, so take it easy, c'est la vie.

That's not true... UNESCO includes plenty of endangered European "dialects", like Astur-Leonese and Aragonese. See here: http://www.agenciasinc.es/esl/Noticias/ ... n-el-mundo

We are set to lose over 50% of our languages by the end of the century; this is completely unprecedented. It's mainly because of the imposition of national languages as well as the spread of mass media (Amazonian languages are threatened by Portuguese-language television, for example).

[deardron]

That's not true... UNESCO includes plenty of endangered European "dialects", like Astur-Leonese and Aragonese. See here: http://www.agenciasinc.es/esl/Noticias/ ... n-el-mundo

This doesn't convince me much, if you look at the UNESCO atlas of endangered languages, you'll see that the absolute majority of such languages is concentrated in "indigenous" regions, Africa, America, Oceania, Russia. Spain has only 4 endangered languages/dialects, while Papua New Guinea has 98. These figures say it all.

http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/index.php

[deardron]

Just found a series of radio programs about language at Greenland's Broadcast Service (KNR) website:

http://www.knr.gl/index.php?%20id=1773

One of these programs, N7 by Judithe Denbæk (18.04), is devoted to the difference between Kitaamiusut (the language of the West, i.e. West Greenlandic) and Tunumiusut (East Greenlandic). It's easier to scroll to it by using the forward arrow. The program is in Greenlandic, but nevertheless you'll be able to hear the examples on the difference between both languages.

[YngNghymru]

This doesn't convince me much, if you look at the UNESCO atlas of endangered languages, you'll see that the absolute majority of such languages is concentrated in "indigenous" regions, Africa, America, Oceania, Russia. Spain has only 4 endangered languages/dialects, while Papua New Guinea has 98. These figures say it all.

Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse area on the planet and areas within it were, until very recently, very self-contained. For that reason exactly it's hardly surprising that there are more languages (and thus more endangered languages) in PNG.